


My Cat

by ACatWhoWrites



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Cats, Alternate Universe - College/University, Cat Turned Human, Character Turned into Human, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 19:58:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3353411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ACatWhoWrites/pseuds/ACatWhoWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sehun's cat turns human, but there's little difference.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Peaches

**Author's Note:**

> This started last year. I thought I could collect them in one place, rather than let them get lost among other, unrelated, short pieces.

Sehun stumbles into his apartment, kicking the door shut and toeing off his sneakers. He drops his book bag and yawns. “Peaches? Here kitty kitty.”

“Pretty sure I’ve told you I don’t like that.”

He jumps at the unexpected voice and falls halfway to the floor. His knees strike the hardwood with a solid thud that has him wincing and whimpering a little, a sole tear springing up in his eye. He gazes wide-eyed at the young man standing in the doorway to his bedroom.

The stranger walks to the sofa—footsteps so light they make no sound—and leans over his crossed arms. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah!” Sehun scrambles to his feet and dusts off the seat of his pants. Nothing like a heart attack to wake him up. “Yeah, fine. Um, uh— _Who are you_?”

“Take a wild guess?” He shakes his wrist, which is encircled by a red leather band with shiny rhinestone studs and bright silver charms hanging from a small ring.

“Oh my God. What have you done with my cat?!” Sehun hustles around his apartment, calling repeatedly for his precious pet. He drops to all fours and peers under tables and shelves, going so far to hug the floor completely and shimmy under his bed.

Squeaking bed springs have him scrambling back into the open. His head pops up over the side of the mattress to be greeted with a long-nailed hand gently clenching and pulling at the blankets.

The stranger sprawls with an easy grace that is decidedly feline and has Sehun’s conscious babbling nonsense. “... Peaches?” he ventures, voice a strained squeak.

His human-cat blows a kiss and watches with blatant amusement as the human-human passes out.


	2. Bigger, Better, Sassier, Feistier

Sehun wakes up heavy and warm. He finds, upon opening his eyes, that both heat and weight come from the same source.

Peaches, the cat-that’s-not-anymore managed to move Sehun up off the floor and had taken the opportunity of an unconscious body to curl up between Sehun’s arm and side. He has Sehun’s phone in-hand, swiping at floating fruits.

“I was hoping I was dreaming.”

“Life with me is always a dream.”

“I could’ve sworn you were a kitten. Why are you so big?”

“You have no concept of cat years, do you?”

“No.”

“I’m older than you are.”

Sehun snorts. “Perfect. Bullied by my cat.”

“No different than before.”

“Before I could pick you up and move you. Now ... .” He tries to roll away, tries to sit up, and gives up with a huffy sigh. “ _Now_ ,” he stresses with a grunt, “I can’t even sit up.”

“You don’t need to. You just got home.”

“Yeah. I got home, took a little nap, but who’s going to make food?”

The cat stills, slices a watermelon in half, and drops the phone on Sehun’s stomach as he sits up. “You make a good point for once. Get up and feed me. I haven’t eaten all day.”

“You have food sitting out all the time.”

Peaches combs a hand through his hair, a parody of a grooming cat. “Have you ever tried dried food? It’s bland." Comb comb. "And dry." Fluff. Comb. "And gross.”

“You never complained before.” Sehun scoots off his bed to stand.

“Yes, I did. You thought I was just being cute.” He shoulders past Sehun and hops onto the kitchen countertop.

“Hey! Down.”

“Make me.” Bigger and brawnier evidently means sassier and feistier. Sehun shrinks a little under the challenging, dark-eyed glare and is a bit more convinced that the human-cat is, in fact, his former cat-cat. He has been on the receiving end of that same glare many times after treading on a tail or paw, removing an insistent feline to change his sheets, and taking away the “people food” from a curious nose and tongue.

Sehun backs down and opens the fridge to avoid the slanted stare. “Fine. At least you shouldn’t shed as much.” He closes the fridge again. “Is pasta okay with you? Easy, fast, put what you want on it.”

“Sure.”

“And if this,” he gestures to the cat’s humanoid body, “is permanent, then you need a different name. I refuse to call you ‘Peaches’ in public.” He fills a pot with water, turning over names in his head. Everything he comes up with is the name of a friend, family member, or drama character. Setting the pot on the stove, he turns it on high and leans back against the counter. “I got nothing. Do you have any ideas?”

“Nope. We don’t really do names for ourselves. Everyone just smells different. Which is weird,” he continues with an experimental sniff. “Nothing really smells, anymore. It’s like my nose is stuffy with nothing. I can’t even smell YOU, and I’m wearing your clothes.”

“Another thing that has to change. You’re too big for my clothes.”

The water begins to bubble. Sehun is impatient and dumps a bag of pasta in. As the water boils and the pasta cooks, he retrieves his phone and does a couple web searches. The human-cat watches closely over his shoulder.

“Must you be so close?”

“You never complained before.”

“You were a lot smaller and less human before.” Sehun shows him the phone screen. “Here. Tao. Chinese. Pretty much the same, only this is actually used as a human name. Can you live with that?”

“I suppose. It could be worse, anyway. Your pot’s boiling over.”

“Why didn’t you take it off!?”

Newly-dubbed-Tao returns to his perch on the counter without a reply, bored with the scolding. Cat habits die hard, evidently.


	3. Kitty Kisses

Sehun is just walking out of class when his phone sings. “Jongin?”

“Sehun, when did you get a room mate?”

“What?”

“I let myself into your apartment.”

Fuck. “I told you to wait for me!”

“I am waiting! I'm waiting in your apartment with your very friendly room mate.”

“Do not touch him.”

“Hands-free, my friend, but, in all honesty, he’s the one doing most of the touching. Like, I'm legit lying here with my arms up, and he's just totally comfortable on top of me. . .”

Sehun may have broken a few laws in his hustle home. Throwing open his apartment door—which Jongin never remembers to lock—he trips over shoes that aren't his and kicks them against the wall.

Jongin peers around the sofa back. “Welcome back. Don’t break your wall.”

“I'm gonna break YOU.”

“You've said that before. I wasn't impressed.”

Sehun rolls his eyes and drops his jacket on a hook piled with sweatshirts. When he toes off his sneakers, he feels marginally calmer until he paces around the sofa and sees his human-cat napping on Jongin’s lap. He raises a finger. “Before you ask again, I am going to tell you that you’re not going to believe me." He points to Tao. "The guy on your lap is my cat. No, I don’t know what happened. I’ve given up trying to figure it out. If you wanted to be helpful, you’d figure out a way I can possibly keep him here, since men are more expensive than cats.”

“. . .” Jongin snaps his gum and chews thoughtfully, eyebrows dipped in a mildly concerned vee over his nose. “That’s just messed up, man. You need to go to bed earlier or something.”

“I've been trying to tell him that for months.” Tao stretches on Jongin’s lap with a satisfied whine.

“You've lived with him for that long?”

Sehun sighs. “Ten months, Jongin. I just told you he’s my cat.”

“Like, cat-cat? That miniature black panther with the sissy name?”

Finally, someone who understands. Tao raises his arms, planting a hand on either side of Jongin’s face. Sehun doesn't know if he should freak out on his human-cat or human-human best friend when Jongin doesn't resist and lets himself be pulled down to hunch over Tao, who leans up just enough to touch his lips to Jongin’s.

As a cat-cat, Tao had no qualms kissing people; they all seemed to love it and found it to be the sweetest thing. As a human-cat, the effect seems to be no different, but Jongin has always been a bit special, in Sehun's opinion.

“Please don’t make out with my cat.”

“It’s just a kiss, Sehun.”

Tao agrees with a flat look. “You don’t complain when I kiss you.”

Sehun flushes pink at Jongin’s look and mumbles something about putting his bookbag away.


	4. Cats hate water but love heat.

"Sehun.

"Sehun?

" _Sehun."_

 _What_?!" It's just after ten, Sehun's nearly done with homework he should have done right away on Friday. He worked weekends. Monday has an early morning class. He was a bit thrown off by his kitten turning into a fully grown man, though, so he thinks his procrastination is acceptable. He just wants to shower and pass out after finishing this problem.

He should set an alarm before anything else, though; he will forget the moment he sees his bed. Good plan.

He reels in his annoyance and fishes his phone from between the couch cushions. "I'm almost done. What is it?"

Tao looks somewhat sheepish, elbows on the back of the sofa and looking at Sehun's chin rather than his eyes and picking at the hem of his sleeve. “Would you shower with me?”

That draws Sehun's attention from his book. The human-cat's adjusted pretty well to being a strict biped, but if Sehun's learned anything about cats, it's that they have an innate sense of _I own the world, no matter what happens, or what I do,_ which translates to infuriating confidence. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I’ve never used it myself, it’s scary alone, and if you don’t, I’ll flood the bathroom.”

Fair enough, although Sehun's not sure if that tail end was a threat or inevitable consequence. Sehun can't afford to pay for any damages, and plumbing always costs an arm and a leg. He tosses his textbook aside and hauls himself to his feet, ignoring the open delight on Tao's face when Sehun immediately complies.

That innate sense at work.

It will take Sehun a bit longer than a couple of days to get used to Tao's human shamelessness, however. He's almost impressed by how fast the human-cat strips naked. Almost. He's seen faster, but he can't remember exactly who, when, or why.

Sehun pulls the shower handle up, showing Tao the red and blue indicators for hot and cold water and how to adjust the handle to accomodate. He turns around to take his clothes off, dumping his and Tao's into an almost overflowing laundry basket. He'd have to take care of that soon.

Tao's watching the water uncertainly. As a cat-cat, he'd sit on the toilet tank or sink and yowl at Sehun until he got out. Sehun learned that he could just leave the curtain open; Tao just wanted to be able to see him.

His friends assured him it was normal cat behaviour. Some were clingier than others. Peaches—Tao—was and is 'clingier than others.'

So much so that he waits until Sehun is in the shower and soaked and notices the human-cat's hesitation. "C'mon." He offers his hand. "You have to be in the water for it to work."

There's a moment of overlapping reality as he watches the uncertainty, hesitation, dislike, resolve, and steeling nerves pass over Tao's face. Peaches would have the same look as he gauged a jump or sniffed at whatever cat food Sehun had bought, ears standing straight up and tilting like mini satellite dishes.

Finally, when Sehun's hand is cooled and kind of shivering, Tao ignores it and steps over the edge of the tub. Clingy, but still very much an entitled cat.

“How the hell are you so ripped?” Sehun pours a small amount of shampoo into his palm and lathers Tao’s hair. The human-cat’s face screws up as soap runs down his face.

“What do you think I did by myself while you were gone?”

“Eat, sleep, poop, repeat.” Sehun wipes falling shampoo suds from Tao's face with his thumbs. "Jesus, did you benchpress the sofa or something? You could probably benchpress _me_." He mumbles to himself among mumbled instructions for the human-cat to 'hold still,' 'close your eyes,' and 'stop squirming.'

“I got bored and restless without someone to play with. I'd just run around the entire apartment. Chase mice. Climb curtains. Chew your shirts." Tao shakes his head, but the uncomfortable wet remained. He squints at Sehun. "Which reminds me, we need to move.”

“ _Ah ha_! No. If you want a bigger place, get it yourself." Sehun pushes the human-cat's bangs from his face and says, "You're done. Move over or get out.”

“How?” Tao shuffles to press himself to the wall opposite the showerhead, so the water only bounces off his legs.

“Step over the tub."

"How do I get a bigger place for us?" _For us_. Sehun's guts twist a little, squeezing the puking butterflies in his stomach. "Get a job.”

Tao drips all over the floor as he steps over the tub and grabs a towel. He rubs his skin until it's all dry, then he grabs another towel just for his hair. “You do realise that I’ve never even left this apartment since you brought me home.”

Sehun frowns. It's true, and it's sad when sad out loud. He didn't think a cat was the sort of thing to take on walks or on the train, though. Tao probably would have enjoyed it.

“... We’ll change that tomorrow. You can come to class with me.” He shampoos his own hair and tilts his head back to rinse it away from his face. “Some rules, though: Do as I say, not as I do.” Finishing their shower and Sehun’s list of dos and don’ts, Tao flinches at the whack to his arm for taking all the towels and shies away from the blow dryer until Sehun corners him and tosses a clean shirt and sweatpants for him to wear.

Tao discovers the blow dryer isn't so bad; he can ignore the noise in favour of the wonderful heat blasted through his hair.

They tumble into bed. Tao's clingier when sleepy and curves around Sehun’s back, buries his face in Sehun’s damp hair, and falls asleep within minutes.

Sehun lies awake longer, unaccustomed to the cramped bed. It's not a bad cramped, although he feels uncomfortable without something over him—Tao's arm doesn't count—and carefully contorts himself to grab the rumbled sheet at the foot of the bed.

When shifting and sighing doesn’t wake the human-cat, Sehun relaxes and forces his brain to focus on the darkest spots behind his eyelids, until he falls asleep.


End file.
